49 MARCKX v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE SIR GERALD FITZMAURICE attitudes in their own good time, in their own way and by reasonable means, - States must be allowed a certain latitude. 30. Belgian law is not unreasonable: it gives the mother the chance to convert the status situation by a formal act of recognition of the child. Or this can be done on behalf of the child under the Belgian guardianship system. Recognition is an inexpensive, ordinary and simple procedure and the Belgian authorities have what I consider perfectly reasonable grounds for requiring this formality. One has to consider the interests of the mother as well as those of the child. As I pointed out in the course of some questions I asked during the hearing, there are situations where it is most unfair to saddle the mother with the consequences of the birth of her child. Is it right and reasonable that in no circumstances should the mother be given in law the right to choose? For example, what about the woman who has a child against her will? It seems perfectly reasonable for a law to provide that the mother shall have the option and that, where a mother for whatever reason refuses to assume her responsibilities, the authorities will assume them for her. The answer that the birth of unwanted children may also occur in marriage is beside the point. Unwanted or accidentally conceived children are an occupational hazard of marriage, and the whole case is quite different. 31. In my opinion, it is quite wrong and a misuse of the Convention virtually an abuse of the powers given to the Court in relation to it - to hold a Government, or the executives or judicial authorities of a country, guilty of a breach of the Convention merely by virtue of the existence, or application, of a law which is not itself unreasonable or manifestly unjust, and which can even be represented as desirable in certain respects. That there may be grounds for disagreeing with or disliking the law concerned or its effects in given circumstances is not, juridically, a justification. No Government or authority can be expected to operate from within a straitjacket of this sort and without the benefit of a faculty of discretion functioning within defensible limits. Equally, breaches of the Convention should be held to exist only when they are clear and not when they can only be established by complex and recondite arguments, at best highly controversial, - as much liable to be wrong as right. POSTSCRIPT The question of who is a "victim" according to Article 25 (art. 25) of the Convention (1) Before any case can come to the Court, it must have been before the European Commission of Human Rights; and under Article 25 (art. 25) of the Convention the Commission can only receive (i.e. accept) a petition from a person, entity or group "claiming to be a victim of a violation" of the Convention by one of the States Parties to it. This could be regarded as a preliminary issue concerning the Commission alone; but the Court has treated it as a point of quasi-substance that has to be established to its own